BOSTON -- That was a great baseball game today. I really thought we had it once Vladimir Guerrero hit the grand slam to tie it in the seventh. All of a sudden, our at-bats got better and their at-bats weren't as good. Everybody on our bench was energized at that point and I really, truly, absolutely thought we were going to get it done.

It just didn't happen. It's unfortunate because our blood had begun to stir again and it was a nice feeling.

Vlad did it again. When we needed something very large to occur, the guy really showed again what he's all about.

When we went to Jarrod Washburn against David Ortiz at the end, there's no problem with that. Washburn was rested and we felt very good about the matchup. Ortiz hit a fly ball to left field. In our ballpark, it's an out. At Fenway Park, it's a home run. That's just the way it is. A left-handed hitter in this park who knows how to use that wall properly can be very profitable. He didn't kill it. He hit a nice fly ball to left and we lost.

We're all proud of our ballclub. There has been no quit in this group all season. We've battled through adversity, injuries, a suspension. Our guys like being here and feel we can be here year after year. We're not going to want this to happen to us again.

It's very tough to lose on a homer in the 10th, but I thought that in the way we battled back from a 6-1 deficit in the seventh to take it into extra innings, we showed a champion's heart. That's something we can all take a lot of pride in.

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